Practice Management Alert

Hint: Although these laws are grouped together, their implications can be very different.

As a healthcare professional, you know that complying with Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute are major tenets of navigating financial relationships in healthcare.

Test your knowledge of these laws by answering the questions below. Compare your answers with an expert’s, listed on page 46.

1. True or false: Intent doesn’t matter for Stark Law compliance.

2. Which of the following credentials qualifies someone as a physician, in terms of Stark Law?

A. Medical doctor (MD)
B. Doctor of osteopathy (DO)
C. Dentist (DDS)
D. All of the above, plus podiatrist (DPM), optometrist (OD), and chiropractor (DC).

3. Who does the Stark Law consider immediate family?

A. Grandparents
B. Aunts
C. Uncles
D. Cousins

4. True or false: A woman, whose husband is a physician, invests in a local pharmacy downtown, but did not make that investment meet an exception under Stark. This relationship would not prevent the pharmacy from accepting a prescription or order for services from her husband.

5. Which of the following does not qualify as a designated health service (DHS)?

A. Clinical laboratory services
B. Physician professional services
C. Physical, occupational, and speech language therapy
D. Radiation therapy

6. True or false: Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute are interchangeable names for the same laws.

7. True or false: A patient can be implicated under the Anti-Kickback Statute.

8. The Anti-Kickback Statute applies to which of the following federal healthcare programs?

A. Medicare
B. Medicare Advantage
C. Tricare
D. All of the above.